Starting Up

Missing Out on Tax Credits

From: Plastics Technology
Issue: February 2011

You might be leaving money on the table.

That’s what editorial director Jim Callari warns against in his Editorial this month. A sign of the timeliness of that warning comes from Habif, Arogeti & Wynne LLP, the largest independent certified accounting and business advisory firm in Georgia, which recently conducted the biennial 2010 Georgia Manufacturing Survey in cooperation with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Kennesaw State University. The survey covered 494 Georgia manufacturers with 10 or more employees. Focusing on responses to the recession, the survey found that 47.3% of the plastics companies responding introduced new processes and 38% of them new techniques and technologies in 2007-2009. What’s more, plastics manufacturers beat out all other respondents in pursuit of energy savings, averaging 5.3% reduction in energy costs.

At the same time, only 6% of plastics companies sought state or federal energy tax credits for the savings they accomplished. Plastics firms ranked very low in taking advantage of all forms of tax credits and incentives—including those for R&D, investment, job creation, retraining, and import/export. Those overlooked opportunities reportedly could provide the equivalent value of millions of dollars of additional sales.